What’s Ahead for Oak Hill State Park?
By Laura Longley
If you escaped to the beach over this year’s long Fourth of July holiday, it’s possible you missed the biggest news to reach Northern Virginia in quite a while: the approval of Virginia’s purchase of President James Monroe’s Oak Hill mansion and its 1,240 acres as a state park.
On June 30, Gov. Abigail Spanberger approved the Commonwealth of Virginia’s budget to which she added the acquisition of Oak Hill near Aldie. Twice in the past year, the state Senate Finance Committee had rejected the offer of what was essentially a gift of property owned and maintained by Loudoun’s DeLashmutt family since 1948. Their concern, largely addressed by the commitment of a $20 million endowment, had been annual costs.
The push for a park began with the DeLashmutts, who wanted to ward off subdivision or data center development. With no luck on a national park concept, they approached The Conservation Fund (TCF) with the aim of permanently conserving the land and eventually allowing public access to Oak Hill’s 1820 home, designed by White House architect James Hoban.
They couldn’t have found a better partner. The Conservation Fund is a national U.S. nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to protect natural land by using a ready pool of capital and expertise in structuring complex land deals. It’s proven pivotal to this deal’s success. CTF bought the DeLashmutt property for $22 million in November, 2025.
“The Conservation Fund exists for projects of this magnitude and importance— to pursue the opportunities that others say are impossible,” explained Heather Richards TCF Mid-Atlantic vice president.
This one did seem impossible, ultimately requiring the collective commitments of Loudoun County ($27 million), U.S. Land and Water Conservation Fund ($6 million), and the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation ($2million) plus private funding to gain the governor’s signature for purchase and start-up costs. Richards is now shepherding the settlement between The Conservation Fund, the financial partners, and the Commonwealth, as well as putting in place the foundation for a $20 million endowment that is expected to generate $1 million annually to support Oak Hill State Park’s ongoing operations.
Now the question becomes: What will Oak Hill State Park offer Virginians beside another president’s manor house to visit? Richards points to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which will manage the park and is currently tasked with developing a state park master plan. Every state park, like Sweet Run near Hillsboro, has a master plan that lays out its vision, mission, management, operations, budget, facilities, and the resources it will require over time.
With its March, 2025 feasibility study in hand, DCR already has a road map to Oak Hill’s future. Does it include a swimming pool, perhaps? Tennis courts? Sports fields? A public golf course?
No. And they are not likely to be added, especially when you consider that only 10 minutes away is Hal and Berni Hanson Regional Park, a $100 million plus construction investment of Loudoun County with an annual operating budget of $1.4 million.
At Hanson, which opened in 2022, you’ll find 10 multi-purpose soccer fields, four youth baseball/softball fields, cricket pitches, four tennis/pickleball courts, two artificial turf fields, an outdoor basketball court, two playgrounds with rubberized surfaces, batting cages, a skate plaza, a disc golf course, five ponds, fishing piers, grandstands, picnic pavilions, an amphitheater, nature center, lodge, off-leash areas for dogs, and paved and natural surface trails.
So why duplicate what you already have at Hanson when, as DCR’s consultants pointed out, Oak Hill isn’t merely a president’s mansion plus a lawn awaiting recreation facilities. It’s a vast, intact Piedmont landscape of agricultural fields, woods, historic roads and lanes, Little River frontage, farm buildings, tenant houses, and archaeological resources.
In their words, this open space is perhaps “the last greatest opportunity” of its kind in this region of Virginia. And, as a working farm, the park could preserve active agricultural uses that contribute to its income stream.
Instead of cricket pitches then, count on trails—probably four to six miles of them to start, said Richards. They should be in place by fall of 2027, along with a parking lot. Biking trails like those at Mount Vernon and Monticello could come later. A dedicated horse trail? Maybe, if neighbors to the west make a strong enough case.
Three million Virginians live within 30 miles of Oak Hill. They represent not only three million one-time visitors but also friends who bring friends and extended family to visit and engage in the legacy and ongoing life of the park.
For students of all ages and historians everywhere, the Department of Conservation and Recreation planners see Oak Hill evolving into an invaluable resource for learning about America’s fifth president and the Monroe Doctrine, about the lives of his 77 enslaved people, about the Manahoac, Haudenosaunee, and Conoy Native American tribes who hunted here, and even about dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs? Sure. Take a stroll around Oak Hill‘s garden patio, look down, and check out the tracks embedded in the paving stones.
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